The official ceremony for the crowning of the new Emperor was full of tradition, had lots of different people speaking, giving prayers, passing on advice and making predictions for a long and healthy reign. It was mostly just all for show with the right people and was time consuming, slightly annoying and seemed almost pointless to Yifan and the dragons but they all understood that it was part of their cultural identity and it would mean that everyone would recognize Luhan as the Emperor.

What was a little more surprising was their own reception, which took place three quarters of the way through the ceremony and in the past, it had been merely a small tradition which was done just to pass the acknowledgement over because there had not been a Dragon Prince in years. So, for the people to actually find that there was one after so long there were rumblings of all sorts that initially scared Yifan just a little but a well-placed hand on the small of his back took away the fear and Yifan nodded his thanks towards Suho as they moved to fulfil the ritual and proclaim their loyalty to Luhan. Who in return pledged to make sure that their bond would forever be fulfilled.

Yifan could barely remember the details of it all now, it seemed so long ago as he leant on the red fencing to watch the fireworks as they lit up the sky in celebration. It was nice to be away from all of the chaos that had existed for the most part of the day, finally he could just relax a little and allow himself to just be Yifan with no formal title or expectations placed upon him.

The dragons were clearly feeling the exact same way too and were lurking around the private gardens enjoying the fireworks in their own way. Sehun was sitting on the bridge next to him, clearly exhausted by everything that had occurred and had half slumped against Yifan’s legs as he tried not to start snoring aloud.

Suho and Yixing were sitting next to the pond below them, the water dragon dangling his legs into his natural element which caused the occasional splash to rear up whenever he got excited over the pretty lights in the sky. Yixing by contrast was just staring at them with a vacant expression, clearly fascinated but unable to work out what was going on.

Chen and Baekhyun were bouncing around the courtyard like hyper active two-year old’s, sharing in a game which appeared to be either trying to capture the light from the fireworks that fell towards the ground or else trying to make the fireworks explode before they were at the correct height. No one really bothered with the pair because they were clearly having fun and it was good to see them blowing off steam.

Unlike Xiumin and Chanyeol who were slumped together on some mattresses that they had dragged out from the inner house to lie on and just watch the fireworks quietly. Occasionally there would be a comment about a particular firework but for the most part they were just quiet and clearly enjoying themselves.  Kyungsoo was roasting food on an open fire pit and the smell was certainly very tempting indeed.

Blinking Yifan realized that he could not see Tao anywhere in the garden and he twisted his head away from the fireworks temporally only to find himself coming face to face with Luhan who smiled. “If you’re looking for Taozi, Kai’s currently cuddling with him in the library.”

“Kai’s what?” Yifan asked, blinking his eyes and trying to figure out what was wrong, “Is he hurt? Does he require my attention?”

Luhan chuckled and shook his head, resting a warm hand on Yifan’s arm, “No. Tao’s fine. It just transpires that he’s afraid of fireworks.”

“Afraid of…” Yifan blinked, “He’s a dragon who can breathe fire, how can he be scared of fireworks?”

“It’s the noise apparently,” Luhan chuckled, shaking his head as he turned to look back at the fireworks that continued to light up the sky, “He’s a bit sensitive to it. He’s such a sweet little baby.”

Yifan shook his head and looked back at the fireworks with a smile, “Yeah that he is. It’s still funny though.”

“Jiaheng was afraid of fireworks as well, actually,” Luhan smiled, remembering how the other would fling himself under the nearest available item that he could hide under whenever he heard the sound of fireworks.

“Really?” Yifan asked, blinking in surprise as he had not known that fact about his friend, “I thought that Jiaheng wasn’t afraid of anything?”

Luhan smiled, “Oh he was. He just hid it really well when he was around you. There were a lot of things that he feared to be truthful, I bet he would have been terrified of all of these dragons for certain.”

“Now I know you’re making stuff up,” Yifan smiled and reached down to pet Sehun’s head, “Jiaheng would know how to keep this lot in line a lot better than me.”

“If you had presented him with a dragon he would have screamed and ran away to hide as fast as he could possibly manage,” Luhan replied, “He ran away from a puppy one time, only to have the creature chase him thinking that he was playing a game.”

Laughing aloud, Yifan shook his head but smiled brightly, hardly believing the words that were coming out of his brothers mouth but happy to indulge in them for the time being. Letting out a contented sigh he pouted a little when the last firework exploded and the stars came out to replace the pretty colours from before, “I don’t know if I’ll make a good Dragon Prince or not, Luhan. I only hope that I can keep my promises to you.”

Luhan reached out and ran his fingers through the boy’s soft hair, “You’ll be the perfect Dragon Prince, Yifan, you were born for it. I trust you more than you know right now and I’m sure that together we’ll be a force to reckon with.”

A surprised sounding snort came from Sehun who had lost his balance on Yifan’s legs and nearly gone crashing down onto the wood of the small bridge if not for his reflexes. Yifan let out a good-natured sigh, “I think it’s time that I get certain baby dragons to bed.”

“Yes, I agree with you,” Luhan grinned, “I would rather like to have my personal bodyguard back by my side at least sometime tonight.”

Giving his elder brother a look, Yifan bent down to pick up the sleepy Sehun into his arms and bid his elder brother goodnight before heading off to find Tao and relieve Kai of his impromptu duties. Luhan smiled and turned his attention back to the stars, “Please guide us well, ancient ancestors. I get the feeling that we shall need it soon.”

To Be Continued

authors babbling: I don't know why it's put it all in italics but there you go. Anyway, I will be going on a mini hiatus with this because I'm not too sure where the plot wants to go and there's a couple of other fanfics that I wanna write but dont' worry I'll come back to this. If you have any suggestions or ideas then please let me know cause I don't want to leave this just here. Hope you've enjoyed so far and catch you soon